“Here we go again. It’s a year later and we’re back where we started,” said author and Founding Director of Women of Color in the Arts Kaisha Johnson. “It’s so disheartening, although not surprising, to see historically and predominantly white arts organizations and cultural institutions pulling out all the stops (and red flags) to acknowledge Juneteenth this year. After all the hollow statements of solidarity — which I expressed as extremely problematic in a Medium article last year, I find myself in the same space — giving a metaphorical and literal side eye to our sector.”
“In the course of a year, we’ve seemed to have normalized silence. We’ve seemed to have normalized empty promises, empty rhetoric, and the lack of accountability. So it’s not freedom when Black cultural workers have to walk into white spaces and deal with the ongoing shenanigans that stem from these institutions dedicating valuable time and resources — without full investment in the work — knowing that their institutions will ultimately make no real commitments, once again pushing Black and brown folks to shoulder the burden. This is also a form of racial violence.”